The Cow Palace may be history

LEGENDARY VENUE: It once hosted Elvis and the Beatles; now Daly City wants it razed

Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Thursday, February 28, 2008

A neighborhood of single-familly homes are seen next to the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. State senator Leland Yee is proposing that the state of California, which owns the property, should sell it to the city of Daly City which in turn would raze the historic structure and build a shopping center and residential units.
Photo by Paul Chinn / San Francisco Chronicle less

A neighborhood of single-familly homes are seen next to the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. State senator Leland Yee is proposing that the state of California, which owns the ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, SFC

Photo: Paul Chinn, SFC

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A neighborhood of single-familly homes are seen next to the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. State senator Leland Yee is proposing that the state of California, which owns the property, should sell it to the city of Daly City which in turn would raze the historic structure and build a shopping center and residential units.
Photo by Paul Chinn / San Francisco Chronicle less

A neighborhood of single-familly homes are seen next to the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. State senator Leland Yee is proposing that the state of California, which owns the ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, SFC

The Cow Palace may be history

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The Cow Palace has hosted some of the biggest musical acts in the past half-century, from the Beatles in 1964 to Metallica in 2004, and it was at the Daly City venue that John F. Kennedy gave his 1960 speech that first outlined his idea for the Peace Corps.

Though it is one of the Bay Area's historic venues for concerts and events, the Cow Palace may soon go the way of other old structures - like New York's Polo Grounds and San Francisco's Playland at the Beach- that are torn down to make way for redevelopment.

State Sen. Leland Yee has introduced a bill to let Daly City purchase the Cow Palace property, which is owned by the state. He said he wants to fix up the neighborhoods near the Cow Palace and put more money in state coffers.

Ultimately, say Yee and Daly City officials, the 68-acre property will be used to build a grocery store, bank, housing and other projects that will benefit people in the underserved areas - including San Francisco's Visitacion Valley - that border the Cow Palace.

Yee, D-San Francisco, said it's not a fait accompli that the Cow Palace would be razed under the terms of the bill and a subsequent sale of the property. But Daly City's manager says otherwise.

"The Cow Palace has outlived its usefulness," said City Manager Patricia Martel. Events there "contribute nothing to our community. Why would we keep it?"

Since Yee introduced the bill Friday that is making its way through State Senate committees, opponents have gathered forces in a bid to preserve what they say is a Bay Area treasure. If anything, they argue, the Cow Palace - built in 1941 with funding from the Works Progress Administration - should receive special status as an officially designated landmark.

"I'm mad as hell," said Kevin Patterson, a San Francisco native whose Great Dickens Christmas Fair is held every year at the Cow Palace. Patterson, with other outraged residents, started the Web site www.savethecowpalace.com. "It should not be sold to Daly City, and certainly should not be bulldozed. This is a real estate venture disguising itself as an attempt to improve the local community."

Mindful that they need to explain the Cow Palace measure to a public that might be skeptical, Yee and the bill's supporters are holding a series of public forums over next four weeks, starting tonight at Daly City's Bayshore Community Center.

Pros and cons

Already, residents who live and work near the Cow Palace are divided by Yee's measure and Daly City's vow to take a wrecking ball to the Cow Palace.

"It would be a good thing," Juan Guzman said Wednesday morning as he waited for a Muni bus at the corner of Geneva and Santos streets, across from the Cow Palace. Guzman, a 47-year-old contractor, says the area badly needs a grocery store. A smattering of convenience stores, family restaurants and fast-food outlets dot the streets near the Cow Palace, but no supermarket. "We don't have anything here," Guzman said.

But Alan J. Smith, a homecare provider who grew up near the Cow Palace, says the venue, besides providing jobs for working-class people, hosts a number of children-friendly events.

"I've been coming to the Cow Palace since way back watching the original Globetrotters; I took my little stepkids to the Globetrotters last month," said Smith, 50, standing near the corner of Geneva and Santos Streets as he, too, waited for a Muni bus.

"It's a landmark," he said. "They have the rodeo, the flower show, the antique show - there are so many good things going on in there."

Martel and the Daly City Council, which lobbied Yee to author his measure, say the Cow Palace hosts too many gun shows, erotic balls and rap concerts, which, said Martel, "contribute nothing to our community and create more problems in terms of public safety issues."

But Mark El-Miaari, who has run a convenience store across the street from the Cow Palace for 17 years, said crime from events is negligible, and that groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses also hold annual events at the Cow Palace, which bring in thousands of people who spend money in the neighborhood.

The debate over the Cow Palace's merits would never have reached the Legislature if the Cow Palace and Daly City had completed their negotiations over the property.

For more than two years, the two sides discussed having Daly City lease the upper parking lot, which totals 13 acres and connects with land that Daly City is already developing for housing. Martel says the Cow Palace Board of Directors, a state-appointed body, demanded income from Daly City's new housing properties as part of any deal - which is when Daly City ended negotiations and approached Yee.

The senator, whose district includes Daly City, said he was already looking at ways to improve the area around the Cow Palace when Daly City asked him to consider a bill that would let it buy the whole 68-acre property, not just the 13 acres of the upper parking lot.

The Cow Palace hosts about 60 events a year, and generates, according to Martel, "a minimal amount" of revenue from parking, ticket and concession sales that's divided among Daly City, San Mateo County and the state. Yee said the Cow Palace, when it balances revenues against the costs to running the facility, loses money every year, and needs millions of dollars in earthquake retrofitting that the cash-strapped state can't afford to fund.

Other venues

If the Cow Palace is torn down, Yee said, he will help ensure that annual events ordinarily held there will find a home elsewhere in the Bay Area.

That's not good enough for the Dickens Fair's Patterson, Cow Palace Chief Executive Officer Walter Haub or other fans of the facility, who say it should be preserved at the same time that Daly City gets part of the property on which to build a grocery store, bank and other neighborhood amenities. Showing visitors around the Cow Palace on Wednesday, Haub pointed to a wall in the box office where such stars as Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Burt Bacharach had signed their names after concerts. In the Cow Palace's corridors, blown-up photographs spotlight the singers, sports teams, evangelists, politicians and rodeo stars who've performed or spoken to adoring crowds. Outside, along Geneva Avenue, an electric sign advertised the facility's upcoming performances, which include a garden show, train show and circus.

"We're not saying we're the Taj Mahal," Haub said, "but we also believe that we still have a role to play in the community."